There is a common belief that long-term mental health is directly related to early socio-emotional experiences and the child’s quality of attachment (Ainsworth 1979 cited in Muhadrimahimov p.491). One fact true to all of us is that we were all once a child. Studies have shown that early childhood experiences directly shape each one of us, as individuals, as we grow older.
We all know and understand that the most vulnerable group of people in the world are children. This is due to the helplessness of babies, socio-economic situations, lack of parental guidance, mental and physical disability, possible abuse and a wide array of other conditions (Sasix 2011, p. 2). Given this reality, unconditional love and positive regard is needed for all children (Collins, Jordan & Coleman 2010, p.38). There is an absolute need for them to feel loved and cared for. That serves as the essential requirement for a healthy early childhood development. However, in some instances, this essential requirement is denied to a number of children due to circumstances that are beyond their understanding and control.
In the Philippines, institutional and orphanage care is what has been widely provided for decades. However, in more recent years, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has been promoting an alternative based on providing a loving family atmosphere and individual care for a child, which is called “Foster care”. Click here for the full text on RA #10165 – Philippine Foster Care Act of 2013.
Foster care is defined as a loving alternative for children who cannot be cared for by their own families. Children that are undergoing foster care may have been previously abandoned by their own family or surrendered by their parents into an institutional care facility. Through the facilitation of a childcare or child protection agency, the child is placed with a licensed foster family who provides all of his or her needs. By its very nature, foster care is temporary, but can extend for several years, until the child is reunited with its birth family, or placed permanently in an adoptive family (source: PFP Inc.)
In the Philippines, foster caring has existed for the past thirty years. One of the prime foundations that established foster care is the Parenting Foundation of the Philippines (PFP). An NGO established in 1986 whose mission is to be proactive, self-reliant, and the leading advocate for a child’s right to a family (source: PFP INC.).
Upon learning about this foundation, I gained some important insights through Ms. Pazie De Guzman, often called “Tita Pazie”. She has been the foundation’s Executive Director for the past thirty years and worked tirelessly to pioneer the first drafts of the foster care bill in 1997 which became a law under RA 10165 that gives incentives and support to foster carers.
“Foster care for a child, unlike a collective care setting, is likely to bring more attention, caring, and more stimulation; essential for their development.” Tita Pazie says.
Furthermore, the foundation takes a central and active part with the DSWD in both local and inter-country (outside the Philippines) adoption of children who are placed in homes that will care and nurture them and create a sense of being in a loving family.
Currently, PFP has forty children in their foster care, which includes new-born babies with special needs. There are foster parents that have been caring for children with special needs for the past three to six years. For some foster parents, fostering led them to accepting their foster child as their own and being able to adopt them legally.
There are many ways of spreading God’s love in people’s lives and foster caring is one of them. It can change a child’s life in so many ways by providing love, care and security within a family, which probably did not exist previously. The surprising thing about this is how rewarding it can be to foster parents too.
Nanay Unang with an Anchored bag that’s fit for her as she #sharestheloveandlight through foster caring.
She loves being a Foster mom because of how much light and joy it brings to her heart. Through the years, fourteen fosters kids have come into her life, some even for long-term care (up to twelve years). She ended up legally adopting some of her foster children. As she tells the Barangay health workers when she has a new foster child, she always feels fertile “kaya laging may bagong baby”. It is amazing how Nanay Unang foster cared again and again, but that is the heart of a true mother, one with a never ending love for her children.
The Parenting Foundation of the Philippines is in need of FOSTER PARENTS to say yes to caring for children or babies in need. By saying “Yes” to fostering children, it can change the prospective foster parents’ life in an instant.
Starting January 29, 2017, the 30th anniversary of its founding, PFP Inc., has designated the whole year of 2017 as the “ Pearl Anniversary Fundraising Year for FOSTER CARE” for the Filipino child.
If you want to get involved please call Parenting Foundation at +632-659-0340 or +632-802-4767, or send me a personal email and learn more about the life adventure of a foster mom: [email protected]
And because every vocation or calling has its own set of challenges, read about the story of Tita Malli Del Bianco on her life as a foster mom: Challenges of being a foster mom
Please help PFP Inc. continue its advocacy and mission for another thirty years! To find out and learn more about PFP Inc. and Foster caring please visit their website here. You can also check them out on Facebook
To know more about foster caring in the Philippines, here are some links for you to access:
PHILIPPINE LAWS & POLICIES ON FOSTER CARE
UN COnvention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 Articles 27-29
RA #10165 – Philippine Foster Care Act of 2013
UN General Assembly, 2009 Guidelines on Alternative Parental Care
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